Draft:Preeti Vasudevan

Preeti Vasudevan is an Indian-born choreographer and cultural storyteller now living in New York City, USA. Her theatrical works redefine individual identity and often focus on the collision of eastern and western aesthetics. Vasudevan frequently collaborates with cutting-edge artists using dance, music, poetry, visual art, mime, theater and other modalities to create contemporary dance-theater storytelling works that are rooted in ancient traditions.

Vasudevan has collaborated with artists such as cellist Yo-Yo Ma, Guggenheim filmmaker Paul Kaiser, and the ensemble Silkroad. Vasudevan's works have been commissioned and recognized by the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, US Department of State, Glimmerglass Opera Festival NY, Guggenheim’s Works & Process, New Victory Theater, Morph Dance Company UK, and The Alliance Francaise, among others. She has also been a panel member for the National Endowment for the Arts, US Consulate panel on women creatives, Joyce Theater, and Asian American Arts Alliance.

Key focuses of Vasudevan's work are on the social impact of the arts for youth and on fostering the next generation of creatives and leaders. Her programs in this area include working with underrepresented communities and First Nations Peoples in the Middle East (Lebanon), South Asia (India), and the Americas (Montana).

Early life and education
Vasudevan was born In Chennai, India, and spent her early years in Delhi. Vasudevan stated that she grew up with the influence of her grandparents and great-grandparents, often listening to their wisdom, humor and stories. Vasudevan grew up in a pluralistic and secular India studying at an all-girls Catholic school during her youth, hearing Islamic calls to prayer everyday from outside her school at the local mosque and Hindu verses and chants at home. Her family relocated to Bangalore when Vasudevan was nine years old.

She subsequently began training with U.S. Krishna Rao and Chandrabhaga Devi. Following her father’s relocation to Madras, Rao advised Vasudevan to continue her training with new mentors - VP Dhananjanyan and his wife, Shanta. Vasudevan and the Dhananjayan's son Satyajit were selected as early dance leaders amongst a select group of young artists pan India for the India-International Dance Festival/American Dance festival held in New Delhi in 1991.

During this time, Vasudevan began her studies at the Women’s Christian College in India. She went on to earn a Natyapurna in Bharatanatyam from the Conservatory of Indian Performing Arts in 1991. In 1993, she graduated from the Women’s Christian College, receiving a B.A. in Psychology.

Career
Early in her career, Vasudevan was the recipient of a Cultural Exchange Scholarship from the Japanese Government and went to Takasaki Art Center College in Japan from 1994 to 1995. At the college, she studied Nihon Buyo (Japanese classical dance), pottery, and calligraphy. As part of her exchange she taught Bharatanatyam (classical Indian dance) to Japanese students. She performed for the Indian embassy in Tokyo and worked with distinguished Japanese dancer and educator Kiitsu Sakakibara. Vasudevan's solo career started at the age of 15, although she continued to perform as a lead performer as part of her teachers' company, "The Dhananjanyans". In 1993, Vasudevan first came to the United States on a performing visa. She began touring in the U.S. with the Dhananjanyans, performing in lead roles in their productions as well as collaborative projects like the Jungle Book (1996 -1997) with the Ohio Ballet. She was Assistant Director for the production of The Mahabharata in the Island of Reunion. Vasudevan’s first professional theatre production as a choreographer, dancer, and actor was in Indianapolis for the production of the Indian play Nagamandala. During this time, Vasudevan also carried out arts education workshops at juvenile detention centers in the city through the Young Audiences program.

In 1998, Vasudevan was asked by the co-founder of the New York City Ballet, Violette Verdy, to perform at the launch of the International Encyclopedia of Dance. Verdy became a mentor to Vasudevan, taking her to teach at the Chautauqua Institution and advising her to move to New York City to further her career. Following a 28-city tour of The Mahabharata, Vasudevan began her next career journey in New York in 1999.

In 2001, Vasudevan obtained her Masters in dance at the Laban Centre in London, graduating as the Valedictorian of her year. Following her graduation, Vasudevan moved to New York in 2003. Her Masters dance thesis was awarded the Emerging Choreographer’s Award from the Joyce Foundation in New York City in 2003. This was followed by an International Choreographic Residency and faculty position at the American Dance Festival in 2004, teaching Contemporary Indian dance and vocals.

In 2004, Vasudevan founded and became artistic director of Thresh, a performing arts nonprofit organization in New York City. With Thresh, Vasudevan subsequently embarked upon a nine-city tour in India, performing Strings Unattached - her first trio of contemporary works. Vasudevan spent two years living in India between 2006 and 2008 with her husband, Bruno Kavanagh. During this time, she collaborated with her husband to create and produce an interactive, educational website called Dancing for the Gods, which was used for over 10 years through the Department of Education for New York City public schools as a means of introducing Indian culture to students. Vasudevan continued to create and perform projects that brought together classical Indian storytelling with contemporary Western dance. She choreographed her first full length production, The Absent Lover, based on the 5th century Indian playwright Kalidasa’s Vikramorvashiyam. The following solo production, Savitiri, had seven award nominations at the Mahindra Excellence in Theatre Awards (META) in India. In 2015, she was commissioned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art to create Veiled Moon, a project inspired by the work of 18th-century female poet, Maha Laqa Bai Chanda. Vasudevan has embarked on numerous educational outreach projects. She led a workshop for dance majors at Hunter College in 2013, presented "Re-Thinking Failure" at TEDx Barnard College in 2013, and led a Winter Dance Intensive with the Mark Morris Dance Group in 2014. She also took on guest workshop and speaking roles at Pace University, the Rubin Museum, Sarah Lawrence College, and Fordham University. In 2016 and 2017, Vasudevan performed as a special guest at the Jacques D'Amboise's National Dance Institute.

In 2016, Preeti was the first Indian Resident Fellow for the Center for Ballet and the Arts at New York University. Vasudevan worked with New York City Ballet principal dancer Amar Ramasar on the development of Etudes, a dance series between two dancers sharing the same heritage but different dance languages. In 2017, she premiered Stories by Hand, collaborating with Paul Kaiser. The work was commissioned through a two-year residency by Bill T Jones’ New York Live Arts. She was the first Indian dancer to receive the 2018 Lincoln Center Award for Emerging Artists, as well as the 2018 Dance Research Fellowship by the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts’ Jerome Robbins Dance Division researching on Merce Cunningham's works in his centennial year. In 2019, Dance Lab NY and the Joyce Foundation selected Vasudevan as one of four female choreographers of color in ballet. Vasudevan developed the early stages of her current work-in-progress dance-opera, L'Orient, which was presented at the Works & Process by the Guggenheim Museum. In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Vasudevan was commissioned by Works & Process to create a virtual work called Upside Down & All Around. In 2020, Vasudevan founded the Red Curtain Project, a digital platform for young audiences seeking to both preserve and bring new life to cultural stories through performance. In its first year, Red Curtain Project produced 15 performances of stories relating to Indian heritage. Vasudevan partnered with cellist Yo-Yo Ma to create a children's story called Imbo & Elli. In 2020, Vasudevan (through Thresh) created three digital stories for the Adyan Foundation for the celebration of the 100 Years of Greater Lebanon, working with Arabic stories of war and resilience from senior citizens narrating their stories to the youth. In 2021, following a bubble residency at Mount Tremper Arts commissioned by Works & Process, a new section of L’Orient: Search for the Real Lakmé was presented at Lincoln Center Restart Stages in September 2021.

Vasudevan has also created the First Voices initiative, an ongoing performing arts collaboration between Thresh and the First Nations community in Montana, focused on ancestral storytelling, traditions, and building leadership amongst the youth. In April 2022, First Voices was premiered and screened at the Yellowstone Art Museum in Montana. In the summer of 2022, Vasudevan was Associate director and Choreographer for The Jungle Book, commissioned and presented at the Glimmerglass Youth Opera festival in Cooperstown, NY. Continuing her current production of L'Orient, Vasudevan developed and premiered a new excerpt, "Speaking in Pointe", at the Flea Theater in November 2022. Another Works & Process project, Indian Letters with Amar Ramasar, was previewed at the 2024 Uptown Underground Dance Festival by the Guggenheim Museum.

Selected Choreography

 * Indian Letters (in development), 2023
 * Launchpad residency, Works & Process, November 2022
 * NYU Center for Ballet and the Arts
 * L'Orient (in development), 2022
 * NYU Center for Ballet and the Arts
 * Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts
 * Bicycle in the Sky (in development), 2022
 * The Flea Theater, Nova 2022
 * Jerome Robbins Dance Division Fellowship, 2018 - 2019
 * Drumming a Dream (in development), 2022
 * Tudor Park, NY
 * LabWorks Residency, New Victory Theater
 * Études (in development)
 * NYU Center for Ballet and the Arts
 * Bagheera's Aria, 2020
 * Virtual commission by Glimmerglass Opera Festival
 * Upside Down and All Around, 2020
 * Virtual commission by Guggenheim Works & Process
 * Natakam: Play, 2018
 * Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts
 * National Museum of American History
 * Stories By Hand, 2017
 * New York Live Arts
 * 6-city tour in India, 2015-2016
 * Veiled Moon, 2015-2016
 * Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival
 * The Metropolitan Museum of Art
 * Boxed, 2015
 * Charlotte Ballet's Annual Gala
 * National Dance Institute
 * Beethoven's Sketches, 2013
 * Garden City, present as part of the chamber music
 * Society Sunday Series, NJ
 * Savitri: dancing in the forest of death - dance-theater, 2012-2013
 * Eye on India Festival, The Dance Center at Columbia College Chicago
 * META Festival, New Delhi India
 * Adishakti Theater Laboratory, Pondicherry
 * Epic Women Conclave, India
 * The Absent Lover - contemporary theater, 2008-2010
 * Birmingham International Dance Festival
 * META Festival, New Delhi India
 * Tree of Life Festival, Chennai India
 * Reworking: Past/Present, 2001-2010
 * Laban Center London
 * Butler International Festival
 * Tour of India (9 cities)
 * Strings Unattached Season, The Joyce Theater
 * Artwallah Festival, Red Bank, NJ
 * La Mama Dance Festival of South Asian Dance